[dave@[EMAIL PROTECTED] quick_test]$ cat test_regex.pl #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $line = "test_text"; if($line =~ m/^\d*/) { print "true\n"; } else { print "false\n"; } if($line =~ m/^\d/) { print "true\n"; } else { print "false\n"; } [dave@[EMAIL PROTECTED] quick_test]$ ./test_regex.pl true false [dave@[EMAIL PROTECTED] quick_test]$ why is the first one true?